Chicago-based organization Bellator announced the signing of the
23-year-old Combat Sambo World Champion on November 15 of last
year. “Slava” was slated to make his promotional debut March 16 in
the opening round Bellator’s Season 6 middleweight tournament
against “The Ultimate Fighter” veteran Victor
O’Donnell. There is now a question surrounding whether the
Russian all-rounder was free to sign with Bellator in the first
place, as his former promoter claims to have a valid contract with
Vasilevsky.

“The contract was from the beginning of 2010 for two years,” M-1
Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan told Sherdog.com this
week. “It had a champion clause, which was activated when he won
the Selection [tournament] and later the Challenge titles.
Currently it expires at the beginning of 2013. He owes us in the
region of five fights.”

To enforce the contract, M-1 has taken legal action against
Vasilevsky in an Amsterdam court. The trial against their former
champion started Jan. 16, with a second hearing on Feb. 6.

“We’ve been saying this all along. Vasilevsky is under contract
with M-1. The court decision from the Feb. 6 [hearing] is out this
week and after that we will be taking legal action in the US to
protect M-1’s rights to our fighter,” Kogan continued. “We will be
doing everything we can -- with a judgment from Holland on hand --
to make sure that Vasilevsky doesn’t participate in events held by
another organization in the US.”

Bellator representatives declined to give an official comment on
the matter when asked by Sherdog.com.

Vasilevsky left his native Russia in fall of 2011 to join
K-Dojo in the United States. The Fairfield, N.J., gym has
already brokered deals which saw Adlan
Amagov join Strikeforce and Khabib
Nurmagomedov sign with the UFC late last year.

After losing Bellator’s welterweight belt to Andrey Koreshkov last year, Douglas Lima said that, impaired by injuries, he shouldn’t even have been in the cage that night. But the current champ, it seread news >>

Douglas Lima avenged his 2015 defeat to Andrey Koreshkov on Thursday in Tel Aviv, Israel. The 28-year-old Brazilian knocked Koreshkov out to win the welterweight world title in the main event at Bellread news >>

Bellator lightweight champ Michael Chandler and title challenger Benson Henderson aren’t looking to be the Viacom-owned promotion’s Conor McGregor, but the idea of chasing another belt isn’t out of tread news >>

Michael Page and Fernando Gonzalez have been set to face each other in the Bellator octagon three times, with the first two meetings falling through due to various issues.Filed under: Bellator, Newsread news >>

MMA veteran Colleen Schneider is the latest Bellator acquisition. Schneider, 34, is the girlfriend of UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett and has fought the bulk of her career in the women’s bantamweight diread news >>